Naval Post-Grad School Professor Enters Plea for Estranged Wife’s Murder
Dr. Larry Jones in court
SAN BENITO / MONTEREY — Naval Post-Graduate School Professor Larry Jones has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity during his murder trial on March 30th. He stands accused of murdering and dismembering his estranged wife, Norife Herrera Jones.
The Honorable Judge Julie R. Culver accepted the plea and, on May 18th, will send Jones to the CA Department of State Hospital where his current mental state will be evaluated.
Jones told the judge that an argument over the divorce settlement on August 31, 2012, drove him into a manic rage, during which he struck his wife with a blunt object and rendered her unconscious. Several days later, realizing what he had done, he shot her in the head and lower torso with his shotgun.
Jones then dismembered her body sometime prior to September 7th, when he transported it in the trunk of her Honda to Highway 101 and Cannon Road in San Benito County and arranged her body parts along the road.
Jones was on sabbatical from the school at the time of his wife’s murder. He attended an affiliated recruitment interview in San Diego on November 13th and then did not return to Monterey, at which point authorities in Monterey — along with help from LA Sheriff’s deputies — tracked him to a hotel near the Los Angeles airport.
It was discovered that Jones had purchased a ticket for a flight on September 15th to Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
